Food, Fun and Creativity

love

As I walked thru the grocery store late yesterday I saw this couple (of about my age, so not young but defiantly not old!) and I noticed the wife right away because she was wearing this knee length dress in a fun, modern print with a really long sheer vest. She was dressed like I would expect my daughters (aka youngsters) to be dressed. I thought she looked really cute.

So, later, as I was leaving the store she was walking out as well.

I said “Can I just say you look adorable?”

She put her arm around me and said “Can you be my new best-friend? At our age we need to hear this, right?”

I replied, “Yes, ma’am, and we need to support each other.”

She said, “Thank you, that made my day.”

My question to you is this: do you give compliments freely? We “girls” need to support each other. When you know (or see) a friend has lost weight TELL her! Tell her how fantastic she looks. Support her.

ENCOURAGE HER!

After all we not only do these things for ourselves but those around us. We want to be noticed for our efforts. It is so hard to eat right and be healthy and lose that weight. We need patted on the back! Especially by those we love and respect the most.

I am afraid we see HER accomplishment as a failure for ourselves. We didn’t lose weight. We don’t work-out. We don’t eat right. Why should I tell her she looks good when I feel so bad about myself? We all are competitive by nature. Maybe just a little bit but some all the same. We get defensive when we see someone succeeding when we have failed. Sadly, it is human nature.

Let’s fix that nature!

Get over it! News Flash….it’s not all about YOU!! We are here to support each other (male and female alike)! God needs us to be in tune with each other to further His Kingdom. We can’t do that when we are at odds with each other. You say, “I’m not at odds with anyone, just because she lost more weight than me, dresses better than me, eats healthier than me, exercises more than me (or whatever your situation is).”

Really? You may not know you are at odds with her but she does. She is making great effort to better herself and if her “besties” don’t compliment her then who? Some stranger at the grocery store? Well, yes, and sadly it makes her day because she doesn’t get it from her friends.

I have a friend that always encourages me. She tells me I look cute every time see shes me. I won’t lie, it makes me feel good…especially on a day I don’t feel so cute. I have made an effort to do this with my friends. It makes me feel good to hear it so I figure it has to make them feel good as well.

BE AN ENCOURAGER!

It seems depression is having a heyday in our society. Just look at Robin Williams. He was one of the funniest men around! He took his own life because he was depressed. The funniest man alive was DEPRESSED?!?! If that doesn’t open our eyes to our hurting world then I don’t know what will. I am not saying your friend will commit suicide because you didn’t compliment her new outfit or her weight loss. What I am saying is a compliment can go a long way in making someone feel good about things. And you don’t really know how she is feeling deep down inside. She needs that compliment! Trust me on this!

SO BE AN ENCOURAGER!!

Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace. And the God of love and peace will be with you. 2 Corinthians 13:11

We all need Jesus! Man, woman, child! Compliments are not limited to the sisters in your life. We ALL need to hear encouraging words! It’s just we sisters are hardest on each other. Lets start encouraging not discouraging!

As I sit here this morning pondering life……….I wonder where did the time go?

Where are the young children I raised?

Why are they gone from my home?

Why can’t I get them all in one place together more then once a year?

Why? Why? Why?

Why do they grow up and leave home to make their own lives?

Oh, yeah, that is what we raised them to do. Doesn’t mean I have to like it one little bit! Because I DON’T! Okay, okay, I ❤ my grandsons and my kids had to grow up and lead their own lives for me to have them! So, I am okay with them doing what we raised them to do.

I ❤ the Holidays! Its my favorite time of year. Especially now with 5 amazing grandsons to spoil. But I miss my babies being, well babies! I was thinking about Thanksgiving dinners at my mom’s house. It was so much fun! She always made more food then we could ever eat in day. So, we showed up for days and ate and ate and ate…..until we couldn’t walk! The ‘good ole days’!

That is what I am missing this Eve of Thanksgiving. The times when we loaded up and made the 5 mile drive to see my parents and siblings! Yeah, we lived close so we could go over for days and keep eating. But more importantly we hung out with family. We played games. We ate, too much. We laughed. Did I mention we ate……a lot?!?! We watched football. We made memories.

I miss those days when my kids were younger. When we had complete control….or so we thought, right?! They didn’t have a choice but to go with us. They didn’t have a car or money!

Most of all I miss spending time with my mom and step-father. We laid him to rest 2 and a half years ago. I know my sweet momma misses him every day. I think of him more often during the holidays when we would have been together more. But he was an amazing man and is missed daily.

Life goes on and we make new memories with new family members and our circle starts over with us as the new center. But it is hard to let go of the past and move into the future. I miss many things about the past but I look forward to so many more great things in the future.

I pray this Thanksgiving Holiday you find great happiness and make grand memories that you will look back on fondly. May peace rule your days and hope find you often and all your dreams come true and love never find you wanting!

As I sat and watched the rain fall on Saturday morning, I was reminded of how truly blessed I am. Not because it rained, although that is a blessing. But because I have an amazing husband who loves me for me. Which is asking a ton some days. And children who love me and honor me as their mother. We have our issues but as a family we ROCK!

I was porch pondering, which is what I like to do on a nice slow rainy day.

I think about life and what it offers.

I have everything I could ever need or want and then some.

I do have an amazing husband. He loves me unconditionally. With ALL my faults and quirks! We have a great marriage. We don’t do everything right but we do a lot right and pray through the rest.

I have 6 super kids. I gave birth to 3 of them and then they married some pretty amazing people. All of them love the Lord, which makes this momma happy. They are good, kind, caring, giving, young-adults.

I have 4 of the cutest, most amazing grandsons in the whole entire world! And one more due any day now! Just ask me and I will tell you more then you ever wanted to know about them. I just can’t shut up when it comes to talking about my grandsons. They are the BEST!

I would consider myself a blessed woman.

I read part of an article the other day and it was talking about being blessed and how we as a society use that term way too much. I agree. We do. Just like we use the term “I love…..” too much. We love everything from tastes to feelings to colors to cars and all things in between. I am as guilty as anybody. I love so much in my life. So, I use those words carefree and, yes, maybe, carelessly sometimes.

I think we all agree all blessings come from our Heavenly Father. All good things come from God.

The article talked about us making God out to be some wish granter in the sky. I am blessed because: my children are beautiful; my husband is handsome; my wife is gorgeous; my house is beautiful; my life is perfect; my grandchildren are smart; my job is perfect; my friends are amazing and the list goes on and on. I don’t think God is up there granting our every wish and making our lives perfect. He wants us to submit to His will for our life. He wants us to love what He loves and hate what He hates. It is that simple. But, yet, so hard.

Our challenge in Sunday School this week is to soul search for what God has called you to be in your own life.

What is it that He wants for you?

What does He want from you?

I think if we can answer these questions then we will truly know what it means to be BLESSED.

I wrote the following post a few years ago when our oldest grandson, who will be 7 in July, was just learning to ride a bike at age 3.

I was reminded of this while observing him ride his bike with no training wheels a few days ago.

He was having trouble mastering not having training wheels and told his mom he was putting the training wheels back on his bike.

She told him no, that he would learn to ride, it just took practice.

So she went out with him and helped him along.

Needless to say, with practice, he mastered riding!

He rides like a champ!

Needs to master stopping, still, but rides like the wind!

All he had to do was Pedal, Pedal, Pedal.

Pedal, pedal, pedal:

How many times have you heard the term “keep your head down and plow”? If you haven’t, sorry, you have missed out on some words of wisdom. If you have, hopefully you know what it meant. Keep your head down and plow is a clear, albeit a farmer’s way, of telling you to do your work till the end. Don’t worry about what is going on around you. It may not be your business so don’t make it your business. Keep your eyes on your goal. Get your job done. I think you get the idea.

Well, thanks to my then (last summer) almost 3 year old grandson, Camden, I have a new one for you. He was learning to ride his bike with training wheels, yes he could barely reach the pedals, but that didn’t stop him. He was with his grandpa, Johnny, at our house outside practicing riding his bike. Johnny heard him saying: pedal, pedal, pedal. Grandpa observed his determination in coaching himself on how to ride his bike. Pedal, pedal, pedal.

There is a lesson in this story for all of us. What are you pedaling for?

What do you need to remind yourself how to do? Pedal, pedal, pedal.

What are some challenges that you are facing? Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Are you putting one foot in front of the other? Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Take baby steps if you have to. Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Always know the goal you strive to reach. Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Dream it. Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Just go get it! Pedal, pedal, pedal.

Out of the mouth of babes we can learn a lot about life. Those little babies can teach us so much.

Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”Matthew 19:14 They are a wise, courageous, innocent bunch, even Jesus knew this!

So what it is you need to pedal towards today? Let my grandson’s words of wisdom guide you on this day.

We woke to no air conditioner this morning. The fan gave out some time yesterday but with most of the family here and three of them being hot little boys running in and out we didn’t notice the house being overly hot……until this morning.

So, hubs tells me he will fix it when he gets home tonight………….wait for it……….yes, I made a face that was not pleasing to see by my sweet, sweet man. He was doing the best he could at 5:30 in the morning. I said I was sorry and I understood he couldn’t fix it right now but the thought of being without all day got the best of me. Like I had to tell him this!

So my solution was to work in my front yard which was in the shade for the morning and it was much cooler outside then in. I knew after being outside sweating the house would feel cooler or so I hoped. I got a good start on some projects that I have been putting off for a week or so now. We have the greatest, oldest trees on our block and so the most leaves! All over the yard!

Like a lot of leaves…..all…..over…..the…..place!

As I was working I could smell my honeysuckle flowers and they smelled amazing. They are in full bloom and are in abundance. It is the biggest I have ever grown! I had a jasmine die over the cold winter and replaced it today with another honeysuckle. I am looking forward to it being as lush as it’s partner on the other side of the walk way.

What all this made me think about was finding something to be thankful for. I was a bit sour (and when I say a bit…well you probably already know) this morning realizing I would be without an air conditioner all day. I know some don’t have air conditioning and get by just fine but I am accustomed to a cooler house and I am a bit spoiled….so……yeah I want it now!

Okay, back to being thankful! I was thinking about working in the house and not having ac and being grumpy and so decided to go outside and work. I smelled the flowers and it made my day. Changed my whole outlook. I am grateful for the little things in my life. I am blessed beyond my imagination. I try hard every day to thank my Lord and Savior for the little things. I usually thank Him for our home and heat and cool air and electricity and running water and all the things we take for granted every day. I think I forgot to be thankful yesterday for cool air! Not gonna forget that again!

You have heard the story, take your troubles and put them in a bag and toss them in a room with everyone else’s and then pick a new one, you will be wanting your own trouble back pretty quick. I know for me this is true. I have no air conditioner today. My aunt buried one of her sons on Thursday. Another aunt buried her husband about 6 weeks ago. A friend buried her 22 year old daughter about 6 weeks ago. I can live without air conditioning for a day just to keep my own burdens.

Life is tough. No one ever said it would be easy. We have to make the best of what we have. Do the best with what we are given. Love life and live it to the fullest!

I hope you stop today and smell the flowers and are thankful for what you have been given.

Meet Sabrina

Writer, crafter, wife, mother, grandmother, kitchen experimenter and lover of Jesus. Through life's ups and downs, I've found crafting calms me or so I like to think!
Join me as I show you how to make some fun stuff for your own life and home. Encourage you to try some amazing recipes to help you branch out into eating healthier. Give you that small, needed push to try something new.